A cutting chain of a chain saw may become loose on a guide bar after some amount of use because of factors such as wear that results in elongation (i.e., stretch) of chain. Several saw constructions and associated methods exist to move the guide bar longitudinally away from a body and drive sprocket of the chain saw to take slack out of the cutting chain and ensure that links of the cutting chain remain snuggly seated in a peripheral channel in the guide bar.
A number of the constructions and associated methods require an operator to loosen a retaining assembly using one or more separate tools, to grasp and move the guide bar longitudinally from the chassis to increase cutting chain tension, and then to retighten the retaining assembly to retain the guide bar. In other constructions and associated methods, screws or hydraulic pistons integrated into the chain saw are employed to move the guide bar. For some of these other constructions, a retaining assembly is loosened and tightened accordingly. Further, the loosing and tightening may be accomplished via one or more separate tools. Another type of chain saw does not require the use of separate tools for loosing the retaining assembly, moving the guide bar, and tightening the assembly. However, continuing improvement is always desirable.